What a Happy Thanksgiving for retailers. Holiday sales were up 12.8% from last year’s Black Friday. Retailers moved their promotions to begin on Thursday, and based upon the data this was a good move. Retail sales for the Holiday weekend came in around $59 billion. The question is: Will this keep up through the rest of the year? According to the National Retail Sales Federation, retail sales during the holidays account for roughly one third of all retail sales for the year and 40-50% of the profit for these companies. If this continues, we could see a good rally in the markets throughout the rest of the year. However, if this is just a reflection of stores opening early on Thanksgiving and cannibalizing later sales, we could have a very difficult end of year and first quarter of 2013.
